"I never cremated my father, so he lived on, as dead. It weighed on my body", says Gulzar
New Delhi:
Shell-shocked after not being ableto attend his father's last rites, lyricist Gulzar decided notto cremate him and did so only five years later when hisrevered filmmaker Bimal Roy died.
"When my father passed away in Delhi, I was working withBimalda as an assistant in Bombay. My family did not inform meabout it. My elder brother who lived in Bombay, and who knewwhat had happened, took a flight out the same day," theveteran poet recalls in a chapter in a new book 'Housefull:The Golden Years of Bollywood' by journalist-critic Ziya UsSalam.
"I was informed by one of our neighbours in Delhi a fewdays later. Immediately, I rushed home by train. In thosedays, Frontier Mail, the fastest train to Delhi, took 24 hoursto cover the distance. By the time I reached home, everythingwas over," he added.
Gulzar was a struggling poet at that time and returned toMumbai with a "vacuum in my heart. I never cremated my father,so he lived on, as dead. It weighed on my body".Five long years went by, and Roy was on his last journey."Every night I used to cry as cancer consumed Bimalda, bit bybit. All along, I was there beside him, reading his favouritescript - 'Amrit Kumbh'. On January 8, 1966, when he died, wecremated him, and with him, I cremated my father," saysGulzar.
Gulzar, 76, worked with Roy for the first time inBandini (1963). His first composition was Mora gora ang..but music director S D Burman prevented Gulzar from singing ithimself to Roy fearing the young poet might spoil Roy's moodwith his amateurish rendition.
The book, published by Om Books International, is repletewith little-known facts about actors, actresses, directors,producers, composers and lyricists of the path-breaking filmsof the '50s and '60s, a period rightly qualified as the'golden years' of Bollywood.It examines the changing trends in Hindi films, right fromthe times of Alam Ara to films like Lagaan and TareZameen Par via films like Pyaasa, Do Bigah Zamin,Mughal-e-Azam, Sholay and the rest.
Do you know who was supposed to step into Madhubala'sshoes in Mughal-e-Azam?"At various stages of production, Suraiya, Naseem Banu andBegum Para, were all considered for the pivotal role whichultimately was to go down as the most important role ofMadhubala's career," the book saysIn the relentless march of time, the spotlight may haveshifted from directors like Roy, Mehboob Khan, K Asif, VShantaram, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and several actors but thereis no denying that the filmmakers of the 1950s and 60s - theGolden Age of Hindi cinema - left behind a legacy difficult tomatch, the author says.
"Married to the emerging socio-economic and politicalrealities of the time, Hindi cinema often did what wasprincipally the job of the media: mould public opinion,highlight the challenges faced by an emerging nation, not withthe idea of killing an innocent dream but merely to ensurethat none were left out of the march of progress," he writes.
"The depiction of urban angst in a series of Raj Kapoorfilms or the moral turpitude of Guru Dutt films or the socialchasm of Bimal Roy sagas always gave voice to the voiceless,expression to the ignored, and a platform to the deserving."It was cinema that drew from the past, but the past wasnot mere nostalgia, nice but a convenient means of recallingto a newly independent nation that much before the Britisharrived, or the White men gave a call for civilisingHindustan, we are a nation throbbing with vitality," the booksays.
"When my father passed away in Delhi, I was working withBimalda as an assistant in Bombay. My family did not inform meabout it. My elder brother who lived in Bombay, and who knewwhat had happened, took a flight out the same day," theveteran poet recalls in a chapter in a new book 'Housefull:The Golden Years of Bollywood' by journalist-critic Ziya UsSalam.
"I was informed by one of our neighbours in Delhi a fewdays later. Immediately, I rushed home by train. In thosedays, Frontier Mail, the fastest train to Delhi, took 24 hoursto cover the distance. By the time I reached home, everythingwas over," he added.
Gulzar was a struggling poet at that time and returned toMumbai with a "vacuum in my heart. I never cremated my father,so he lived on, as dead. It weighed on my body".Five long years went by, and Roy was on his last journey."Every night I used to cry as cancer consumed Bimalda, bit bybit. All along, I was there beside him, reading his favouritescript - 'Amrit Kumbh'. On January 8, 1966, when he died, wecremated him, and with him, I cremated my father," saysGulzar.
Gulzar, 76, worked with Roy for the first time inBandini (1963). His first composition was Mora gora ang..but music director S D Burman prevented Gulzar from singing ithimself to Roy fearing the young poet might spoil Roy's moodwith his amateurish rendition.
The book, published by Om Books International, is repletewith little-known facts about actors, actresses, directors,producers, composers and lyricists of the path-breaking filmsof the '50s and '60s, a period rightly qualified as the'golden years' of Bollywood.It examines the changing trends in Hindi films, right fromthe times of Alam Ara to films like Lagaan and TareZameen Par via films like Pyaasa, Do Bigah Zamin,Mughal-e-Azam, Sholay and the rest.
Do you know who was supposed to step into Madhubala'sshoes in Mughal-e-Azam?"At various stages of production, Suraiya, Naseem Banu andBegum Para, were all considered for the pivotal role whichultimately was to go down as the most important role ofMadhubala's career," the book saysIn the relentless march of time, the spotlight may haveshifted from directors like Roy, Mehboob Khan, K Asif, VShantaram, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and several actors but thereis no denying that the filmmakers of the 1950s and 60s - theGolden Age of Hindi cinema - left behind a legacy difficult tomatch, the author says.
"Married to the emerging socio-economic and politicalrealities of the time, Hindi cinema often did what wasprincipally the job of the media: mould public opinion,highlight the challenges faced by an emerging nation, not withthe idea of killing an innocent dream but merely to ensurethat none were left out of the march of progress," he writes.
"The depiction of urban angst in a series of Raj Kapoorfilms or the moral turpitude of Guru Dutt films or the socialchasm of Bimal Roy sagas always gave voice to the voiceless,expression to the ignored, and a platform to the deserving."It was cinema that drew from the past, but the past wasnot mere nostalgia, nice but a convenient means of recallingto a newly independent nation that much before the Britisharrived, or the White men gave a call for civilisingHindustan, we are a nation throbbing with vitality," the booksays.
